This article was taken from Chapter one of "The Primitive Preacher" written by Elder Gregg M. Thompson. It will be presented in three parts. Elder Thompson's address to Primitive Baptists is an historical review of the battles he and others had to fight in the early 1800's because of the blind zeal of many Baptist in that time. Many of the things Elder Thompson writes are just as timely in this day and time because a new set of reformers (wolves) are attempting to repeat what took place in the Modern Missionary movement of the 1800's. It serves as a good address to the present day Primitive Baptists as well. (Editor Elder Claude McKee)

Address to Primitive Baptists - Part 1
By Elder Gregg M. Thompson from his book "The Primitive Preacher"

|Part 2| Part 3|

I was born the 11^th day of April, 1811, and was baptized the 2^nd Sunday in May, 1826, by Elder Wilson Thompson, a member of the Regular, or Primitive Baptist church, in Lebanon, Ohio, with twelve others, who were baptized at the same time, and, as far as I can learn, they are all called to their long home, and I am, of the thirteen, the only one left to enjoy your fellowship and Christian love, and to suffer with you the trials and afflictions which we all have to bear in this world of sorrow, sin, and death. You will notice that in this book I have invariably used the name Primitive Baptist when speaking of the church. About the first open and full division that took place between us and the Missionary, or new order of Baptists was in the Kehukee Association, in North Carolina. The party maintaining the doctrine and order of the old Apostolic church took the name Primitive Baptist, because they thought it was the proper name for them to bear, and expressed what they truly were, as the church of Christ; and this name was adopted by the Baptists of the Southern States, and a large portion of those in the Western States. About the same time there was a split took place in the Presbyterian Church, and the Calvinistic party took the name of Old School, and the Arminian party took the name of New School. Some of our Eastern brethren thought that, as these names distinguished between the Calvinistic and Arminian parties in the Presbyterian church, they would be proper names to distinguish between the Arminian and Predestinarian parties in the Baptist church, and so adopted the name Old School, but that name was never accepted by a large majority of the denomination. While the names Old School, and New School, might do among Presbyterians, who were a school people, and believed that no man should be allowed to preach the gospel unless he had been educated and prepared for the work in a theological school, or college. But we, as Primitive Baptists, believed that God chose, called, and qualified his servants to do the work to which he had called them, and with this conviction we had declared non-fellowship for all theological colleges, or schools, gotten up for the purpose of preparing and fitting young men for the ministry. This being true, we thought the name Old School was not a proper cognomen, and would never adopt it. A great many of our churches in the Middle and Western States have never adopted either name, but still retain the name Regular Baptists, and are a sound and consistent Primitive Baptists as we have, and we are all in full fellowship, and are the same people and church. If the party, which we call New School, have ever adopted that name I have never learned it from them. They have very readily adopted the name Missionary, and are proud to wear it, and have adopted all the modern and humanly-devised societies, associations, and conventions, with their salaried officers and traveling agencies, with schools to furnish them with an educated ministry. Against all these things the Primitive Baptists, like their brethren of the 12^th century, have declared non-fellowship, because they were not found in the commands of Christ, or in apostolic example or teaching, or in the pattern given us in the New Testament of preaching the gospel to every creature. We therefore claim to practice the true and primitive missionary plan, commanded by Christ and practiced by his apostles, and that those who have adopted their worldly systems, and humanly-devised machinery, unknown to the gospel are the anties, for, in rebellion against the command of Christ, they are getting up societies, institutions, and practices unknown to the gospel, and teaching the observance of things not commanded by Christ, which is rebellion; for the command of Christ is specific and specifies what we shall teach, and therefore every thing else is forbidden, for the rule of law is, Where one thing is specified, everything else is forbidden.

I was with you when this modern, humanly-devised system was introduced among you in the West and South, and with what feeble ability I had as a soldier in the cause of Christ I stood side by side with Joshua Lawrence, Stephen Gard, Wilson Thompson, and a host of others, who bravely met the foes to truth and the primitive doctrine and order of the church of Christ, and in the hottest of the battle kept the banner of truth displayed, and drove the enemy from the primitive church and its communion. These brave soldiers in the cause of truth counted their lives not dear unto themselves that they might finish their course with joy, and the ministry which they had received of the Lord Jesus Christ. They died at their post, and their Father called them home to receive a faithful soldiers reward [inheritance]. Of the old band of soldiers that kept our banner displayed, and never surrendered to the enemy, fifty years ago, but few now remain. Their heads are gray and their limbs palsied with age; they are upon the verge of the grave, and feel that their discharge will come very soon; and now, in their closing days, when they look back over the war and the battles fought, there is not a truth, nor an inch of territory for which they contended, that they would now yield, and they want to die at their post, like their brethren who have passed off before them. Their hearts have been filled with sorrow, of late, in seeing some of the young ones who have come into the ministry since the war was over trying to introduce in some shape or form the new things we had to battle against, and thus make history repeat itself. I feel confident that I express the feelings of every one of these old veterans, and give the counsel they would give could they all speak to you, when I say: Mark those engaged in this unholy work, and do not bid them God speed, nor invite them into your houses. They are nothing but the old enemy. Their dress may be a little different, but the end and object aimed at is the same, and equally without gospel command or example. Remember the warning which Paul gave when he Said, "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them;" Acts, 20:29,30

We that have had a name among you for sixty years know what we had to pass through on account of these false accusers of the brethren; the charges they brought against us to alienate the affections of the brethren from us, and to make us odious in the eyes of the world; and when we hear them reiterated by those who speak perverse things to draw away disciples after them, we are familiar with the language, and know the spirit from which it comes. Sixty years ago they called us a set of ignorant bigots, who were governed by an intolerant spirit, opposed to the spread of the gospel, and every thing that was calculated to build up Christianity in the world; that we preached nothing but dry Calvinism, and our churches were all dying out; that we were antinomians, and did not believe in good works; saying we were anti-means, and opposed to all good and efficient means now used for the conversion of sinners, and the salvation of the world. Even before that time, Mr. Benedict, in his history, called us by these names, and, in substance, said that before the stereotype edition of this history would reach the churches, our churches would be dead, and could never be resurrected again. He is dead, and his history has so sunk in repute that it is hardly known among the people. But these old, hated, and misrepresented people still live, and are numerically stronger than they were when he wrote. When you hear men, of yourselves, begin to utter these false and slanderous charges against the brethren, know that there is a wolf in your flock, and if he is not put out he will tear and rend you, for such do nothing but devour the flock, and carry off all the disciples they make to strengthen antichrist. I hope that you will hear my feeble warning, and the warning of Paul on this subject, and "watch," and use the discipline of the church; to turn all such intruders out, and shut your doors against them……To be continued